The Serif

Inside a former Pabst warehouse in Walker’s Point, a new high-end apartment building is taking shape.

The project, known as Serif, is being developed by Ann Pieper Eisenbrown of Pieper Properties. Her firm specializes in the redevelopment of historic properties.

City records indicate the building was built in 1894. Pabst, in an era when being a beer baron meant being a titan of all industries, built the building and many others to lease to other industrial users. But despite the building’s brewing origins, Pieper named the project Serif as a nod to longtime tenant, the Heinn Looseleaf Ledger Company.

HKS Holdings had previously sought to redevelop the building as a second office building for the Global Water Center. The firm developed the first Global Water Center at the east end of Reed Street Yards. Tenants for that project failed to materialize and the firm listed the building for sale, selling it to Pieper.

Construction on the project is being led by Catalyst Construction, with Continuum Architects + Planners leading the project’s design.

The project, which is now leasing, contains a mix of one and two bedroom apartments. Rents on the 29 one-bedroom apartments start at $1,695, with rents on the six two-bedroom units as low as $2,395.

The project’s website is remarkably candid about the building’s history. “No baseball teams were founded here, no ephemera like hula hoops or lava lamps were conceived within their walls, and no luminaries set foot on the premises. This building served its purpose in providing honest, sturdy, elegant spaces for honest, sturdy, elegant Milwaukeeans to build their lives,” states the Serif website history section after explaining the Pabst and Heinn origins.

Pieper Properties has led a number of redevelopment projects in Walker’s Point and the Historic Third Ward. The firm redeveloped the Mayer and Saddlery buildings in the Historic Third Ward and 234 Building in Walker’s Point. The predominant use of each building is office space.

Pieper serves on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but is not locally historically-designated.

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